His father’s a renowned romeo and his mum’s a beauty, and now Belfast Zoo’s cutest addition to the family is splashing around the sea lion enclosure.

The California sea lion pup is just 17 days old and thanks to his father Wesley’s prolific romancing over the last eight years, the little baby has 18 big brothers and sisters.

Mum Arielle is expected to feed her little chap for the next six months and he can now been seen by members of the public visiting the zoo.

Belfast Zoo has enjoyed great success with this species since becoming home to California sea lions more than 60 years ago.

Wesley arrived in Belfast in February 2007, from Woburn Safari Park, one of many Californian sea lions managed as part of a collaborative breeding programme in Europe.

And many of the pups born at Belfast Zoo have moved to zoological collections around the world.

The arrival of the latest little one brings the total number of sea lions in the zoo to seven.

Oh Baby those are nice whiskers..

Zoo curator, Andrew Hope, said: “Our sea lions are extremely popular with both keepers and visitors and we are delighted to welcome another pup this year.

“The gang are certainly one of the noisiest species at our Cave Hill site, especially at breeding time.

“Sea lions make all sorts of barks, honks, trumpets and roars and a sea lion pup can pick out its mother just by the sound she makes.

“Between the male’s roaring, the mother’s barking and the pup’s bleating the sea lions are making themselves heard all across the zoo.”

Zoo manager, Mark Challis, is delighted with the latest arrival.

He said: “School’s out for summer and we can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the zoo to see our latest arrival.

“We have a full schedule of animal feeding times which take place every day, so why not call by at 10.45am or 3pm to see the pup making waves or check out Wesley and the gang at the underwater viewing area.”